Rose K.
06/10/2013 12:00:00 SA
Fair disclosure: I haven't had Justin do the actual job yet (though I will, once I actually get my act together), but I thought I should write this review of his visit for an estimate, contrasting it with my experiences with other plumbers I called (skip to the end if you just want to know what I think of Just-In-Time Plumbing).
My problem: a broken water main that goes from the back of my house to the laundry room in the garage. So I was calling a number of plumbers to get estimates to replace the line. Responses varied greatly. Plumber #1, who actually fixed a different part of my water main a number of years ago, never bothered to call me back. #2 gave an estimate over the phone; he treated me like an intelligent human being, but the estimate was very high (hiring unemployed lawyers to dig a trench?). #3 decided he couldn't for the life of him comprehend the problem I was prattling on about on the phone, and asked me to send pictures by email. I did, but never heard from him again. #4 seemed to take offense at having been asked to give an estimate for the job. His line was that he is a one-man operation, and couldn't be expected to dig trenches and stuff. (How dare I ask???) Then he recommended #6 for the job. Three different plumbers came out to the house and gave me an estimate. I generally also asked how much it would cost to temporarily just cap the line. #5 fist kept questioning my judgement about where the water main break was. When he discussed the job with his boss over the phone, he repeated my comment about pricing to cap the line: and then she said wow, $15 for a part to cap the line, that seems expensive, ha ha ha. Unlikely that I'll hire someone who makes fun of me... #6 came out to give me an estimate, which started out high and kept getting lower. For capping the line, he first said, oh, about $250. Me: what, $250 to cap the line???!? Him: well, maybe only $180. Me: $180?? Him: Well, there's the one hour minimum charge, plus the parts. So about $150. Or maybe $120, really. It really just takes five minutes... Then, just before writing up the estimate for replacing the line, he exclaims: Well, really, you don't need a 1-inch line there; 3/4 inch will do just fine! That's what you have right now. So that should be cheaper. Then proceeds to lower his estimate for the line replacement again. Fat chance I'll hire someone who would have happily charged the dumb [...] $250 for a five-minute job.
Then Justin came out to look at the job. He believed me when I told him where I thought the break was, and why (wow). In general, he treated me like an intelligent human being. He said that to save money, I could dig the trench for the line myself, or hire day workers for it. He came up with the lowest estimate. And then he capped the line at the house - for free, in under five minutes. What else is there to say?